Obama: Halt to New Israeli
Settlements is in America's Security Interests

by Chris McGreal and Rory McCarthy

Increasingly fractious relations between the US and Israel hit a low unseen
in nearly two decades yesterday after the Jewish state rejected President
Obama's demand for an end to settlement construction in the West Bank, and
the president responded by suggesting that Israeli intransigence endangers
America's security.

The dispute, which blew in during the open hours before Obama met the
Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, reflects the depth of the shift in US
policy away from accommodating Israel, and towards pressuring it to end
years of stalling negotiations over the creation of a Palestinian state as
it continues to grab land in the occupied territories.

Obama put down a marker at a difficult meeting with the Israeli prime
minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in Washington last week when he demanded a
halt to the expansion of settlements, which now house close to 500,000 in
the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, as they are a major obstacle to
the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Yesterday the Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, said Netanyahu will
defy the White House call by continuing construction in existing
settlements. . . .